Peering into the treasure chamber: History as therapy (Ep. 18)

To read old books is to travel to a place where there is at once much that is foreign-even quite repugnant-and yet much that is startlingly beautiful and mysteriously unforgettable, because it speaks to the universal human story. And hearing this story can actually transform us.

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Livy: "This it is which is particularly salutary and profitable in the study of history, that you behold instances of every variety of conduct displayed[Pg 4] on a conspicuous monument; that from thence you may select for yourself and for your country that which you may imitate; thence note what is shameful in the undertaking, and shameful in the result, which you may avoid...."